


Piper

by VivienneStrongarm



Category: Star Stable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 13:54:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17225261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VivienneStrongarm/pseuds/VivienneStrongarm
Summary: Viv hadn't meant to keep the seagull. They really, really hadn't.





	Piper

Viv had not meant to keep the seagull. They really, really hadn’t. Fucking hell, it was bad enough having to ride across South Hoof – in the rain – to go and find the bloody bird in the first place, let alone nurse it back to health. Rania thought it was adorable, but she wasn’t the one getting her fingers pecked to pieces every feeding time.  
So when the day came that Eiren finally said that the seagull was ready to go, Viv was delighted. No more squawking upsetting Wildflower in the morning. No more making hot mashes and finding half of it on the floor. No more having to buy multiple boxes of plasters to deal with the wounds. It was done. But of course, life couldn't be that simple, could it?

Vivienne unlatched the carrier carefully, keeping her fingers well out of the way. “Alright, let’s be having you,” they muttered, stepping back. The crate was suspiciously silent. “Go on, I said! Be free!” The carrier remained as silent as the grave – odd, considering that an extremely careful ride back to the place they’d found it had provoked such a racket from the gull that anyone would have thought it was being tortured to death.  
Viv closed their eyes and leant back against Stormwalker. “Aideen, give me strength,” they said quietly, and suppressing the urge to give the carrier a hefty kick, bent down to look inside. The gull was sitting on the old towel, with an expression that could only be described as stubborn on it’s face. “Can you not do this, buddy?” they asked. “I have stuff to do today. Besides, you have been desperate to get out of my stable for the last two weeks. Sun is shining, the wind is light, we’re near the colony – no better time to get going.” The bird remained where it was, eyeing her up suspiciously. “Alright, you know what? I’ve had enough of this.”  
They grabbed the towel the bird was sitting on, and tugged it out of the carrier, bringing the bird with it in a flurry of ruffled feathers and indignant squawks, until it stood, glaring at her, on the grass. “You’re back where you belong, buddy,” Viv said firmly, stuffing the now-vacated towel back into the carrier. “Have fun.”  
They mounted Stormwalker, balancing the carrier across the front of the saddle, and set off home. Just when they could see the thatched rooves of the farm, a weird sound came from behind. Rushing air, beating wings and… The seagull was circling above them. Of course it was.  
“What part of ‘go home’ did you not understand?” they yelled, standing up in their stirrups. “Fuck off!”  
The bird called back with an indignant cry, and Viv set their jaw and decided to just ignore it. It wouldn’t follow them all the way back to Mistfall.

It followed them all the way back to Mistfall. It tried to sneak into the stables that night when Viv brought the horses in, and Viv chased it out with a broom. It sat on the fence watching them whilst they were working with Brightflame, and the mare put her ears back and took a snap at it as they went past. It sat on the roof, far out of the reach of horse and human, and crowed triumphantly until it got soaked in a sudden storm.  
Viv found it sitting on a bale of hay the next morning, thoroughly soaked and bedraggled, and it gave them a pitiful look. “Fine,” they said, opening the stable door. “Fine. But you feed yourself, and if you go in Wildflower’s stall again I’m going to shut you in with Brightflame for half an hour, understood?”

“I can’t believe you got a new pet!” Rania said, petting the gull as it sat on the fence sunning itself.  
“Less of a pet and more of a nuisance,” Viv replied under their breath, and behind them, Stormwalker nickered in agreement.  
“You named it,” Rania said firmly. “It’s your pet.”  
“Yeah, well,” Viv said, “it felt wrong to be calling it ‘you piece of shit’. Didn’t it, Piper?”


End file.
